


HALF-SOMETHING

by BellaGracie



Category: The Hunger Games
Genre: Dystopia, F/M, Fantasy, Science Fiction, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-20
Updated: 2020-01-20
Packaged: 2021-02-27 09:27:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,159
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22334935
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BellaGracie/pseuds/BellaGracie
Summary: Re-posting in sections.I tell ya, for a while there, I almost thought I'd leave the fandom forever.But here I am. Not completely on board with re-posting the whole thing (30k words)People who've been following this story will remember it, so I won't explain anything.And please, if someone feels like flaming me here, I will delete. That is all.BECAUSE FAN FICTION IS SUPPOSED TO BE FUN.
Relationships: Katniss Everdeen/Peeta Mellark
Comments: 16
Kudos: 8





	HALF-SOMETHING

**Author's Note:**

> Transporters are ... bad? That's all you really need to know about them.
> 
> The chapter ending is different from the original: Now I've thrown in another 'tracker' much, much earlier: blonde like Peeta (Who could that be???)
> 
> If I post again, will follow a different story arc, because of this one change.

Peeta's mind is racing. Would it be foolhardy to head back to Africa? To the abandoned temple there?

Red earth of home. Africa is my home, Peeta thinks. But is it hers?

He glances over at his wife and says, "Don't worry, Katniss. I'll think of something to get Adam back."

Katniss doesn't reply. She's tired, he can tell. He doesn't know exactly how, since she doesn't slow or complain or do anything the women he's known do. It must be a sense-memory, from the past. From when they were married. How long were they married, he wonders? Long enough to produce a child. Long enough to know that he loves her, and no one else. That is all that matters.

"I think we can stop here for the night," Peeta says. His stomach growls and he wonders how he didn't think to find food.

They're walking along a trail Peeta knows, from a previous assignment. It winds through thick forest. They go up and up, into hill country. Still, she says nothing. Peeta wonders if maybe Katniss has memories from before, too.

The first time he extends a hand to help her over a boulder that blocks the trail, he glimpses the tattoo -- a Chinese character -- on the inside of her wrist and remembers she told him (while he was her prisoner) that the character stood for love: She didn't have that before. Is it someone else's doing? Gai-jin's?

They settle down for the night. He doesn't ask her if she wants to stay next to him, for warmth. It comforts him that she doesn't need to ask, that she instinctively curves against his side. He curls an arm around her waist and that is how they pass their first night together again as man and wife.

Sometime in the middle of the night, he hears her muttering and sobbing. "Katniss!" he says, moving himself closer. She stops. "I'm sorry," she says. He doesn't reply. She starts shivering and he pulls her towards him, wrapping both arms tightly around her.

"Do you still do that thing," she asks.

"What thing?" Peeta asks. Though he remembers. He can see himself tucking a blanket around her, because she gets cold more easily than he does. Smaller body mass, he thinks. Less fat. Hence . . .

They used to sleep with Adam nestled between them.

No! Mustn't think of Adam. Not yet.

"You weren't there for his first birthday. Or his second. Or his third. Or his fourth. Or his fifth. Or . . . " she says.

Against his will, he imagines Gai-jin with his son, cradling him in his arms.

"I'm sorry," Peeta says.

"Wasn't your fault," Katniss says.

He has to stop hating Gai-jin. They are alike, after all. They both love Adam.

So, what was it, what was it? Did it really happen like Cashmere said? He could forgive most things in his life, but not that. He wonders when she will ask about Cashmere. But maybe she doesn't have to ask. Maybe she already knows. He doesn't love Cashmere, seeing her now as a bag of tricks. Cashmere was clever, monkey-clever. She never loved him, of that he's sure. It's important that his wife understands he never loved her.

"Men," Katniss sighs, curling deeper against him.

"She would never have had me," Peeta says.

He can't see her face, but somehow he knows the expression it holds. Is this, too, a sense-memory? There was no part of him she did not know. Why are his old memories of her now mixed up with his memories of the other.

"She fooled you," Katniss says.

And suddenly, he knows Cashmere will find them. Has she ever failed an assignment?

Katniss turns suddenly to face him. "She can't have you, do you hear?" Katniss says.

"She will never have me," Peeta says.

"So, what did you feel all those years you were working as a Transporter? Did you love her?"

Peeta shakes his head. "No, Katniss. No."

"Yet all those years you worked with her. Don't tell me you didn't feel the least bit of temptation?"

Peeta hesitates. He says, finally, "I didn't know you were alive. And -- it broke me."

"Maybe, if you hadn't bumped into me in Beijing, you would still be with her."

"No, I wouldn't," Peeta says firmly. "And what about you and Gai-jin? Did you never -- ?

Katniss takes a deep breath. "I didn't love him."

Peeta lets out a sigh of relief.

The next morning, they push on. They move faster over the terrain now, both of them more sure of themselves, of each other. Towards nightfall, a hard rain lashes at them. They have to stop. But there's a small cave Peeta spies in the side of a hill, and they take shelter there.

"Please tell me you have a plan of how we'll deal with Snow," Katniss says, as she curls again into his side.  
He's not sure how to answer her. The insistent voice is still there, saying his name over and over, with something like panic. It freezes his blood, but when he glances at Katniss, he remembers more about the time when he was a husband. He doesn't know any way except to show her, so he lowers his head and presses his lips against hers. She responds with surprising warmth. He forgets his exhaustion, he forgets everything except for an old hunger lapping at his loins.

"Can I -- " he asks, hesitantly. "Will you -- "

She doesn't even wait for him to finish, she reaches for him and presses her mouth over his, lightly. It's a chaste kiss. His arms tighten around her. Everything that happens after is pure instinct.

Somehow, Peeta remembers. He remembers that his wife likes to be touched there, and there, and there. She squeezes his hips between her thighs and grips his shoulders. Her voice rises just before she comes, turning almost into a gasp, and when her throat arches, he laps hungrily, wanting the taste of her to stay on his tongue forever.

"I love you, Katniss. Only you," Peeta says, over and over, wanting her never to doubt that, ever again.

Her eyes droop, and she's about to fall asleep in her husband's arms when she looks just past his shoulder, at the mouth of the cave, and sees they are not alone.

There's a man there, crouching in the shadows. His hair, though, is light. Blonde. Almost the same color as Peeta's. Maybe they are brothers? Katniss is confused. She stiffens in her husband's arms. Peeta senses the change in her, the new tension, but doesn't lift his head. He still laps at her breasts, still not sated. With great effort, Katniss manages to push his face away.

The man laughs and gets to his feet.

Peeta turns and in one swift movement he faces the man fully, ready to fight even though he is completely naked, and unarmed.

That's when Katniss finally finds her voice and screams.


End file.
